Friday, May 03, 2013

Rangers coach John Tortorella said it’s a matter of “executing” and not needing to change the team’s game plan heading into Game 2 of the Eastern Conference quarterfinals against the Washington Capitals Saturday afternoon.

Tortorella felt the team did a lot of good things in its 3-1 loss in Game 1, but just needs to clean up a few things.

“I thought we generated offense,” he said today. “We don’t score on our breakaway when it’s 1-0 (by Carl Hagelin a minute in the second period). They score on their breakaway (by Marcus Johansson). We go up 2-0 (if Hagelin scores). They score on their breakaway, they go up 2-1. It’s a fine line of winning and losing. So, we’ve just got to get prepared for our next game. There’s a couple of things that we need to correct, but we’ll be ready to play.

One area the Rangers clearly need to improve is discipline. Giving the Capitals’ top-ranked power play five chances is playing with fire. Although the hit to the head penalty on Arron Asham – Alex Ovechkin scored the tying goal on the resulting power play - was questionable, it was the Capitals’ fourth power play already in just the first 27 minutes of the game.

“The bottom line is we can’t be down five times,” Tortorella said. “I don’t think it’s a penalty. It’s not a penalty. But when you end up taking that many so quickly in a game, it’s going to happen and that’s what did.”

The Rangers’ penalty kill was actually pretty good for much of the night. There was a bit of an unfortunate bounce for the Rangers on Mike Green’s shot that went wide caroming off the end boards out to Ovechkin, but Tortorella’s point was giving a skilled team such as the Capitals that many opportunities is eventually going to burn you.

“You have to give credit. Their good players, but I thought we killed penalties pretty well last night,” Tortorella said. “I thought we did a lot of good things killing penalties, but things like that are going to happen when there are good players on the ice and us down a man for so long, so many times.

“We can’t be there. We will not win games if we’re there. So, forget about how you defend it. We can’t be in the box that much.”

About

ANDREW GROSS covers the New York Rangers for The Record and Herald News, having joined the North Jersey Media Group in November 2007. Gross also covered the Rangers and New York Jets, as well as St. John’s basketball and Army football, for Gannett Newspapers and The Journal News (N.Y.). He graduated from Syracuse University in 1989 with a degree in newspaper journalism.